I need an income...
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free skin care · Sat Aug 05, 2006 11:10 pm

I'm a divorced mother of 4 young children and I homeschool them. The child support isn't cutting it and I'd like to "work at home". Is there any good company that hires representatives besides Avon?

free skin care · Sun Aug 06, 2006 1:25 am

If you're going to start working (even at home), why don't you give up homeschooling? I don't know your particular situation, but I think it'd be near impossible to do both well, especially with 4 children.

I used to volunteer at a YMCA. We had a lot of kids where both parents worked long hours. The kids went to public schools during the day, and then studied/did fun activities at the YMCA (free) until their parents got home. Why don't you try something similar, at least with your school-age children? Public schools really aren't that bad. And it seems you could really use the public service they provide.

Sun Aug 06, 2006 6:27 am

I'm not sure about companies other than Avon (though Arbonne springs to mind just now) but perhaps there are other things you can do? If you're good at typing then you could offer a transcription service to a university or legal firm somewhere. If you want to stay at home with your kids then maybe an ironing service? Just a thought. Good luck!

free skin care · Sun Aug 06, 2006 7:38 am

What about Mary Kay? I don't know how much you can make, but I know you can set your own hours.

free skin care · Sun Aug 06, 2006 12:48 pm

Jafra also hires reps.

free skin care · Wed Aug 09, 2006 7:55 am

Have you thought about an in home daycare? This way you can be home for your children (no day care expense) and still have a couple children over to take care of. Day care costs are very big, you can make an income while staying at home?

free skin care · Sat Aug 12, 2006 5:01 pm

Have any of u try being a rep. for either Avon or Mary Kay? I'm interested but I'm not sure how they work. Do u need to purchase their items first and try to sell them out yourself? That's a bit risky if u can't really re-sell them. If anyone know anything, pls let me know. Thank you! =)

free skin care · Sat Aug 12, 2006 7:30 pm

with mary kay and avon....... where do you find your customers from?? i cant imagine selling only to friends/family Shock

free skin care · Sat Aug 12, 2006 7:32 pm

You could do medical transcription, but you'd have to take a class for it.

free skin care · Thu Aug 17, 2006 1:17 am

fifth avenue is a jewelery-based home-rep business.

the stuff is pretty nice.

free skin care · Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:02 am

Thanks all! I just received an info packet about Jafra and I will look into it. It seems the prices are a bit steep for my circle of friends and family, but I might try it out for a while and see what happens. Any tips for selling?

free skin care · Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:24 pm

I hope that works out for you...if not, have you thought about baking and delivering to companies. It's quite popular around here, some folks do lunches or salads or treats! Wink

Guess you know what I'd love best!

free skin care · Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:03 pm

If the child support isn't enough then why can't you enroll your children in school and then find a part or fulltime job?

Mon Aug 21, 2006 3:44 pm

I would highly recommend Arbonne if you are looking for an incredible income opportunity - I have friends who have earned their mercedes with Arbonne in less than a year and earn a great six figure income. Arbonne is however priced at a premium to MK, Avon, and Jafra... though I believe the products are much better (high quality, botanically based ingredients, no fillers or mineral oils).

I have a consultant ID that I use to buy products at the 35% discount - anyone can do this for $29 - you don't to do anything else! For those working the business, you don't have to purchase inventory up front - it is a unique model that is great from a business standpoint. Overall though, my advice to anyone thinking about starting in direct sales is to choose a company by finding products that you believe in - this makes all the difference in your success!

free skin care · Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:00 pm

Anna_in_Sweden wrote:

If the child support isn't enough then why can't you enroll your children in school and then find a part or fulltime job?

Well, there are a lot of reasons, some of them being that I have a 3 year old and can't afford daycare, my 12 and 13 year old don't want to go to school because they love being homeschooled and have been all their lives, the public school over here is horrible (I went to it) and I love homeschooling - it's fun and I've learned so much in every way esp. history, which I've discovered I really love instead of hate Shock

... And also, I have no skills, no degree. I used to be a rural postal carrier (God bless the postman!),and I know i can always go back, but with the price of gas today and I don't even have a car to deliver with (I have a van, it's impossible to do), and it is a very, very strenuous job...and all those UV rays Shock

!!!

It's just not possible even if I did have a baby sitter.

free skin care · Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:32 pm

Anomoly:

I'm sorry, I just don't think you can work from home AND home-school your kids on your own which is what these other people are posting about.

I love home schooling and when it is done well there is nothing better! I have a 4 year old and I would love to homeschool her. I am really lucky that I have a job where I can work primarily from home and can arrange my own schedule while she is young. But there is no way I could even think about even working 20-30 hours/week from home and try and effectively homeschool my daugther, take care of my home, and do a good job at my job, at the same time.

Even while I work from home I have to have someone come in and look after her. (I have a 10 year old that plays with her and because I am home the whole time I can pay less than the usual baby sitter rate.)

I don't know what to tell you. There are no quick ways to make money and home-schooling kids is a serious undertaking that requires a lot a quality time with your kids.

Do you have a home-schooling support group there? Could you trade time with a mom to give you time to work? Like you take her kids and teach them and your kids for 2-3 days per week and she does the same? That way your kids are still home-schooled but it gives you time to work 2-3 days per week.

Good luck!

free skin care · Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:09 pm

Anomaly -

I understand that your situation is a difficult one, and I do sympathize, even though I disapprove of homeschooling. In addition to requiring a basic knowledge of the subjects they teach, certified teachers are also required to fulfill certain course requirements in education itself. I'm well aware of the fact that, unfortunately, many teachers really aren't qualified to teach, and others may be qualified, but lack sufficient motivation, etc.

However, the vast majority of parents, although more motivated, have even fewer qualifications. Moreover, the very process of going to school is critical to a child's process of maturation and socialization. But, homeschooling your children is, in most states in the U.S., your legal right. Some states have rather stringent accountability requirements. Unfortunately, many do not.

Despite my disagreement on THAT issue, though, I think it's naive to think that you could sufficiently supplement your income with direct sales of products like Arbonne, Avon, or Mary Kay. If your potential market is limited to friends and family, the likelihood is that they will buy from you once, to be nice, to help out, etc., but it is unlikely to last and it certainly won't amount to much in terms of your overall income. Also, if you are trying to homeschool your children, I don't see how you can easily take in other children and provide daycare for them at the same time.

If your ex is paying you insufficent child support, I think you should seek legal assistance. There are many organizations that provide free legal assistance to women who are single heads of households, etc. Beyond getting more assistance from the children's father, or from the government (and, I know that government supplements are almost non-existent these days), I do think your only alternative is to find part time work outside your home. I don't know where you live, but I know that many larger and middle sized companies now provide on site daycare, which would solve the problem of your youngest. As for the other two, you may have to dispense with home schooling until you've sured up your financial situation...

free skin care · Tue Aug 22, 2006 3:09 am

Here in Europe homeschooling is not even possible (well, at least not in german speaking territories and other Central or Eastern European countries ) - it must be a difference in school traditions. And though i have a degree from math and beside that i studied physics, philosophy and some chemistry, literature and economy i just wouldn't dare to teach my children...
I pretty much agree with Katee and like to emphasize that being part of a school class/collective is very important for the development of children.

free skin care · Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:14 am

Lin- people who homeschool usually are more religious.
I knew a lady in America who homeschooled and she did this because she didn't like what was being taught in her school. I thought okay, fine. But after getting to know her a bit better it turns out that what she disapproved of was the fact that her children were being taught Evolution. What a laugh! So for that she pulled her two children out of school and homeschooled them until the end of high school. Last I heard both the children were turned down from the colleges that they applied to because of lack of basics. I guess Science was one of them.

Homeschooling doesn't happen here either (like Germany). I don't know if it's illegal or if it's just that people don't do it.

free skin care · Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:30 am

It used to be illegal in the United States as well. However, there was a very aggressive movement by the religious right some years back. Ironically, what pushed the legalization of home-schooling over the edge was the formation of an alliance between the religious right and many who had been part of the 1960s counter culture, who now were parents and who wanted to pursue "alternative" forms of education.

Fundamentally, although I have the utmost respect for the institution of the family and for parental authority, I don't view children as the property of their parents, and think that the central government has a responsibility to each child, as well as a responsibility to the future of the nation in question, to guarantee access to quality public education.

(climbing down off my soapbox and smoothing out my skirt....)

free skin care · Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:35 am

I am a certified teacher and I do believe homeschooling can be wonderful. There are many cities that now have homeschooling communities and the kids go on field trips together, etc.

Kids waste SO much time in school. If teachers did not have to dicipline kids so much, students could have their whole days lesson done in a morning instead of kids having to spend all day there. Often times kids become victims of bullying in school and being in that environment does not serve to enrich their lives but just lead to low self-esteem, getting in with the wrong crowds, etc.

Having said that, homeschooling done properly is a FULL time job! But it can be done well. I know 2 kids that were home schooled. They were in music, public speaking, lots of things outside of the home. They participated in activites put on by the homeschool community and these kids are amazing. They are exceptionally well spoken, both are doing very well in University and score well above average on achievement tests.

I have also seen the flip side of that. Kids who were homeschooled and it was not a structured enough environment and they ended up WAY behind in their skills and, of course, that also leads to low self-esteem, etc. The parents need to be diligent in making sure their children are keeping up to where they need to be and to take advantage of independent testing to make sure their children are up to par. Educational services like Sylvan Learning Centres do standardized skill assessments that give a level of where a child is at in conparison to where they should be for their grade level. If one chooses to homeschool, I think it is prudent to use those tests to check, once a year, of where kids are at educationally.

Look how many kids graduate from our school systems not being able to read and write properly and cannot make it into a college or university? Kids fall through the cracks whether they are homeschooled or not.

free skin care · Tue Aug 22, 2006 11:17 am

I am also a "certified" teacher. What does that mean? Can one be a teacher in America and not be certified? Here to call oneself a teacher (this also includes pre-school!) you have to have attended university and earned a 4 year teaching degree. I wrote about his on another thread. Anyway, one of the papers that I wrote was based on homeschooling and the majority of them do it for religious reasons. I went onto several websites and there was almost always a religious tone to what these homeschooling parents were posting as well as their reasons for homeschooling.

Here's a question: What are the chances that a school would hire a person that had no teaching degree and no college at all? The original poster mentioned that she has no degree at all yet she homeschools all her kids. I wonder how that would go over in a regular school. Would you send your kids to school if the teachers had no degrees whatsoever? I sure wouldn't, so why is it any different with homeschooling? Why is it allowed that anyone with or without credentials can homeschool their kids? Maybe that's why it's not allowed in many Europeans countries. If you're going to teach (whether in school or home) you ought to have a teaching degree.

"Kids waste SO much time in school. If teachers did not have to dicipline kids so much, students could have their whole days lesson done in a morning instead of kids having to spend all day there. Often times kids become victims of bullying in school and being in that environment does not serve to enrich their lives but just lead to low self-esteem, getting in with the wrong crowds, etc."

As for children wasting so much time in school. That's true for nearly everything. People waste loads of time at work does that mean that no one should be employed? Because children waste time in school does that mean that they should be homeschooled? There are ways to change schools if you don't like the one nearest to you. I know people who have done it in America after they petitioned their school board. It does work, you have to try though.

And just to add, if things don't work the way that you want it to, do you run or do you try to change it? If the American school systems are so bad then vote for change. What has Bush done for schools? What's ironic is that most of the people that homeschool are the type of people that vote for him. However rather than demanding that his administration DO SOMETHING they pull their kids out of public schools to homeschool them and then continue to vote for people just like him. I don't understand this logic.

Sorry if this comes off as rude Lily. Smile

free skin care · Tue Aug 22, 2006 11:47 am

I am a "certified teacher"- University Education 4 year degree.

I live in Canada but even if I lived in the US I would NOT have voted for Bush.

It is hard to change the system- even when you are on the "inside" it is still hard to change it.

The people I have known who have home-schooled their children have NOT done it for religious reasons. They have also been from 2 parent families and, as I have stated before, the mom was a stay-at-home mom and that was her job! I don't think it can be done any other way as it really is a full time job teaching kids.

Your post did not come off as being rude so don't worry. I just have seen home-schooling done very well- where the mom teaches the lessons in the morning and then the kids do group activities, dance, gymnastics, swimming music lessons, etc., in the afternoons so I just don't think a mom could do both and do them well. So in those cases the parents were making sure that the kids were getting the social activities as well.

On the flip side I did come into contact with one family where the mom was home-schooling and felt that the kids would just get to a stage where they would be "ready to learn" and would almost just pick up things on their own. I think her kids were 9 and 11 years old and one couldn't read and when I did the home visit both kids were watching TV during the day. Scarey!

Anyhow, I have to get some work done. My point is that home-schooling CAN be done effectively but I don't see how a single mom would be able to manage unless she had a large amount of $$$ coming in from the ex.

I have not looked into the research of it- in terms of homeschooling for religious reasons and have not, personally, come into contact with anyone who did it for that reason. Even though my field is in education I am certainly not an expert in homeschoolin.

free skin care · Tue Aug 22, 2006 12:51 pm

Anna_in_Sweden wrote:

Here's a question: What are the chances that a school would hire a person that had no teaching degree and no college at all? The original poster mentioned that she has no degree at all yet she homeschools all her kids. I wonder how that would go over in a regular school.

Some of my friends just graduated with their teaching degrees and I know that to teach full time K-12 in a school (meaning have your own class), you have to have a teaching degree. One of my friends told me he couldn't even apply for teaching jobs until his physical degree came in the mail.

One of my other friends is teaching ESL at a high school, her degree was in anthropology, but she is a certified ESL instructor. You can also be certified to substitute certain classes without a teaching degree.

I live in Illinois but went to a big teaching school in North Carolina, so I've learned that things vary from state to state.

free skin care · Mon Sep 04, 2006 9:44 pm

Well, I thought I would chime in on this thread since I've been looking at additional income sources myself and I'm particularly interested in one I can do from home. I'm hoping to work my way out of my current job since I've just been so miserable lately, but at the same time I don't want to quit my job without knowing where I'm going next, so I figured a part-time business I could do from home may be my way out. Anyway, since I've run across several opportunities that I think are worth a look, I thought I would share in case anyone else was interested. Since I've signed up to try all of these, I decided it was probably best if I don't post the links at the risk of it appearing to be "marketing". I've been here too long and love this forum too much to risk getting kicked out on a technicality! Laughing

Anyway, just pm me if you want to know more about any of them and I'd be happy to share details/links. I just thought this might help someone else looking for something as well.

1. This is a survey site where you take surveys and they pay you for them. From a few posters on Yahoo this appears to be legit and a nice way to supplement, but not make, an income. From what I can tell so far, it seems pretty easy but I can see how it would easily fill up your junk mail/email box.

2. This one was a web-site development company and I was really interested in it since they said that they train you to develop web pages. It's true that they do, but it's extremely simple and I was looking to actually learn programming. This was a really nice company to talk to/train with, but unfortunately you also have to find your own leads, at least until they get their lead program together sometime next year. This is also only available in certain cities in the states.

3. My favorite so far. This is a "wellness" company and is made up primarily of women. When I talked to them I felt like I was talking to someone from here! This one also really appealed to me b/c there are no sales, inventory, etc. like there is with companies such as Mary Kay, Avon, etc. I am NOT a salesperson so I never even looked into those. They're great for some people though! Anyway, the company has an awesome mission (basically "helping people") and I'm seriously planning to look into this one further.

Finally I wanted to give a warning. There are many scams out there as we've discussed before, but one in particular to look out for has to do with money laundering. Basically they send you a check from one location overseas, have you cash it and take 10% and then wire it back to another country. On top of that, from what I've read online on these companies, they not only could get you into serious legal trouble, but some of these companies have you deposit the initial check into your account, and then they steal your money. One poor guy had his bank accounts frozen after he deposited it. Just be careful out there.

anomaly - I really hope the Jafra works out for you!

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